The Path to Pandora
by Pipsy
Summary: The Sully brothers were as different as day from night, except when they weren't. After Jake is injured, Tommy's decision to go to Pandora divides them. Yet, in the unexpected end, it's the promise behind the silence Jake remembers.


**Standard author's notes and discliamers apply (see profile)**

**The  
Path to Pandora**

_Wind rushed around him, mountainous white clouds passing beneath him and, even farther below, a world of lush green forests, alive and wild. But ahead... Jake smiled as his gaze pinned on the eternal horizon with the ribbon of sunlight slashing across the top of the clouds. Ahead was anything and everything and he wanted to know what was beyond that horizon; he'd chase it forever- perhaps without really caring whether or not he ever found out or reached that unreachable destination. It wasn't the end that mattered- there was no end for him or the horizon- it was the journey. Here, above the clouds and beyond the dead and darkened world of metal and ash he'd left far behind, there were only possibilities and discoveries and life._

_He was free..._

It was a soft, rhythmic sound that awoke him, cutting through the warm blanket of his dreams annoyingly and persistently. He opened his eyes from the darkness to blurry and blinding white and he closed them again quickly, the room spinning. As he blinked away the dizziness, he became aware of a pressure on his hand, warm and coaxing him with gentle squeezes, and he heard his voice calling to him. No, that was wrong; not his voice- _Tommy's_. But why was Tommy here, in this awful and deadest of wastelands, thousands of miles away from home and safety?

Fear for his brother's well-being ushered him to open his eyes and this time, after a second, he managed to focus on the man sitting next to him. Tommy. Concern was written on his face but it was the pristine white walls behind him that brought it all rushing back to Jake. The attack. Caplan. The explosion. The absence of pain... Mouth tightening as his gaze traveled to his immobile legs, he tried in what he knew would be a vain effort to move them, to feel the weight of the blankets covering them. But he'd known then lying in the rubble what was still true now. He was paralyzed.

"Jake?"

He looked up at the sound of Tommy's concerned query, the blue eyes painted with pity searching his doppelganger for some hint of how he was handling his new reality. But Jake's expression was firm, not revealing any of the complex emotions that would arise in the coming weeks and months; he was strong, he would not break down easily- not even with this.

"Where are we?" Jake asked, bypassing pleasantries. He hadn't seen Tommy in nearly a year but that could wait until after he had all the facts straight and knew exactly what was going on. A glance around the hospital room revealed nothing about his location but he figured he was well away from Venezuela, based on its condition.

"Gregory Hospital." Tommy replied simply.

Shocked, Jake waited to make sure he'd heard right but there was no mistaking the definitiveness in Tommy's gaze. "Home?" he asked, somewhat unnecessarily. Tommy nodded. But that meant he'd been discharged... Of course he had been.

Swallowing and noticing dimly that his throat was dry, he digested the information as best as he could. "What day is it?" he asked, distracting himself.

Tommy knew his brother and took it in stride, not pushing the bigger issues Jake had yet to confront but certain it would come up in time. For now, he'd let Jake direct the conversation and set the pace. "May 23rd." he answered.

_Three weeks_, Jake thought, silently doing the math_._ But how was that possible?

"Your skull was fractured in the explosion and there was some swelling;" Tommy explained, reading Jake's confusion, "they were able to avoid a decompressive craniectomy but they kept you in a coma just to be safe until you'd healed."

As he spoke, Jake ran a hand across his head, feeling the gauze wrapped around it and the bandage padding a spot near the back on his left side. He didn't remember hitting his head in the blast or blacking out, but the damage was there; maybe the adrenaline had kept him from feeling it at the time. He'd also been far more concerned about his friend's injuries, he recalled, suddenly seeing the young man covered in cuts and blood lying next to him in the debris.

"Caplan?" Jake demanded to know abruptly.

Surprised by the turn and taking a second to recall the man his brother had spoken of in his v-mails occasionally, Tommy remembered being told about Caplan and his involvement in what had happened to Jake when he'd been informed that Jake had been injured. He hesitated, not wanting to burden his brother when he was already down but with little choice. His silence, however, said enough but Jake waited for Tommy to answer, to tell him exactly what had happened to his friend.

"They... tried," Tommy began, voice tight as he struggled for some gentle way to deliver the news, "but he was already gone when the medics got there. I'm sorry."

Tears stung Jake's eyes without coming close to being born but he averted his gaze all the same as memories of Caplan fleeted through his mind; mornings in their barracks, leave at bars, promises of cover under fire. Another friend- another comrade- dead and gone. Jake's chest restricted with the pain but he battled it down to a dull ache, having had too much occasion to practice how to do so. It would revisit him later, he knew- it always did- but that was later.

For now, he turned to look at his brother and smiled- faint and stained with sorrow, but true. "It's good to see you, Tommy."

**It's short but it's really just an intro. I'm planning on roughly five chapters, although that may be subject to change. I'm working on other project so I don't know how often I'll update, but I'll try to keep lapses from being too long. FYI, "v-mail" is "video-mail" which I made up off the cuff figuring e-mail would probably be somewhat outdated, like letters are now. While I'm really into "Avatar" I'm no expert so any helpful information or corrections are appreciated. Thanks! I hope you enjoy!**

**Please review! I live off from reviews!**


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